Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I want you to hear the story of Deamonte Driver. This is from the Washington Post from February 28, 2007. ``12-year-old Deamonte Driver died today of a toothache.'' 12 years of age. ``A routine $80 tooth extraction might have saved him. But by the time Deamonte's own aching tooth got any attention, the bacteria from the abscess had spread to his brain, doctors said. After two operations and more than 6 weeks of hospital care, the Prince George's County 12-year-old died.'' If you want a picture of American health care, in all its excellence and in its failures, there it is: The best doctors, the latest technology, 6 weeks of hospital care for a sick boy, at the cost of $250,000, in a country that can't find $80 to fix a toothache. To paraphrase Adlai Stevenson, American health care swallows tigers whole, but it can choke to death on a gnat. We couldn't find $80, and in the end it cost us a quarter of a million dollars. More importantly, it cost us the life of a young man. A system that makes such errors on a regular basis is both financially foolhardy and morally insupportable.”